


under your skin feels like home

by Zayz



Category: Superstore (TV)
Genre: 3x13, Episode Tag, F/M, and basically just feelings, and she and jonah hang out a little, filling in some of those emotional gaps, i am still very much in my feelings thanks for asking, it’s amy’s POV so mostly just coming to terms with The Crush, picking up with the end of the ep with dina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zayz/pseuds/Zayz
Summary: He broke her heart, a little. Because as annoying and pretentious and idiosyncratic as he often is, Jonah is so gentle in the ways that matter.Amy, meanwhile, plays violent video games over yesterday’s stew, and steadfastly tries to avoid her feelings.-3x13 episode tag.





	under your skin feels like home

**Author's Note:**

> So, that episode???? Much squealing abounded on this end. I’ve been in the midst of serious creative drought and general existential despair of late, but these two got me writing fic again. I love them and their foolery.
> 
> This is just a quick episode tag, nothing fancy. Title is from a Snow Patrol song. Many thanks to my girl Ari (@swallowsmateforlyfe on Tumblr) for her intrepid line editing, and to Rachel (@branclonsaads on Tumblr) for having a look as well.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

“What, have you got a crush on Jonah or something?”

Dina is just being impatient and sarcastic, Amy knows. But there’s something about this moment— about the afternoon she’s just had, and now watching Jonah walk away from her, all earnest awkwardness and dorky charm— that disarms her, a little.

She turns to look at Dina, and admits, with simultaneous resignation and trepidation, “Yeah. I think I do.”

Dina is perfectly blank for exactly one second, before retching.

“Sorry, it’s not you. It’s all— this.” Dina waves her hand vaguely at their surroundings. The general armpit of civilized society called Cloud Nine; it still smells vaguely of cool ranch and sweaty feet next to the game display. “Do you…want to talk about it?

“Not really? It’s the first time I’ve ever said it out loud.” Amy bites down, hard, on her lower lip. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“Who would I tell?” Dina scoffs. “Everyone already knows.”

Amy groans, setting her game box down and burying her face in her hands. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she says, voice a little muffled from her palms. “People already think my personal life is their business, and I just don’t want a repeat of, like, the Tate incident.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, Amy. Them’s the breaks when you date in the workplace,” Dina says.

“I didn’t say I wanted to date anyone.” Amy emerges from her hands, wide-eyed. A little terrified. “I don’t know _what_ I want. I’m barely divorced, my kid’s a mess, my name change paperwork is still going through.”

“But…you have a crush on Jonah.” Dina’s brows pinch together as she tries to keep up. “So wouldn’t that require dating Jonah at some point?”

“Keep your voice down! And don’t keep saying his name, someone will hear you,” Amy hisses. “Call him…call him The Goonies, or something.”

“The Goonies? Like the movie? Amy, that’s not even grammatically appropriate.”

 _“Fine._ Um, call him Hazel.”

“Hazel?”

“His eye color.” Amy’s blush is fever-red. “But everyone will think I’m talking about that girl from _The Fault in our Stars,_ so, it’ll totally work.”

Dina rolls her eyes impressively far back into her head. A lifetime of practice in retail pays dividends in this regard.

“So what are you going to do about…Hazel?”

“Nothing! He’s dating Kelly.”

“So, what, are we breaking them up?” A worrying light sparkles in Dina’s eyes. “This is great, I’ve actually been brainstorming this for a while, I have several promising ideas— let me just pull up the voice memos here—”

“Oh my god, Dina, we aren’t breaking them up!” Amy blushes even more deeply in her alarm. “Delete those memos!”

“I guess we could just wait it out,” Dina concedes grudgingly. “I mean, you were _married_ and that didn’t stop him from liking you. After that, Kelly’s just a small dirt speed bump on a country road. You could probably just keep driving over her, depending on the brand of your four-wheel drive. Like if you had a Land Rover.”

“I don’t want to drive over anyone.” Amy picks up her game box, running her thumb over the cool plastic. “I like being friends again. I don’t want to ruin that.”

“Again?” Dina’s interest is piqued. “Were you ever not friends? Did something happen?!”

“No,” Amy says hastily. “No, it was the summer away, and just, you know. Life, and whatnot. But the point is, we’re good right now, and I want it to stay good. It’s no one else’s business anyway. Seriously, don’t you dare tell anyone about this. Swear on your bird Charlize Theron.”

“Amy!” Dina looks genuinely shocked.

“I’m not playing around, Fox. Swear on Charlize Theron the Bird’s life that the contents of this conversation will not be repeated to any member of any living species on planet Earth.”

“I swear,” Dina says, a little breathless. “Damn, Amy.”

She nods, some of the blush fading from her cheeks in her determination. She leaves Dina standing there, awestruck, game box firmly in hand as she clocks out from her shift and heads for home.

Emma is with Adam tonight, so the living room will be free. If there were ever a night to decapitate digital villains with vigorous button-presses on her game controller for hours uninterrupted— tonight is that kind of night.

  
.

  
The decapitation is indeed glorious— bloody, cathartic, and tremendously entertaining— but even so, it’s hardly amnesia-inducing. She sets the controller down to go warm up some leftovers for dinner, and while she’s waiting on the microwave, she’s still thinking about her day in the recall room.

It was the first time in a long time that they’d really felt like _them_ again. No Kelly interjecting, no Adam lurking in the back of her mind— no other employees, even, just a complete respite from the world. Playing with all those old, broken, forgotten things, and feeling both familiar and brand new again.

It was the most she’d laughed since at least her divorce.

Or maybe even before that— since before the tornado, since the last harebrained idea Jonah had roped her into. Back when they were careless, and giddy, and free, and he was the easiest part of her life instead of the most complicated.

She’s been hard on him, she knows. They haven’t been talking. He’d wanted to, way back in August, but she’d shut him down. Thought that if they didn’t talk, didn’t try to pin down all the brittle knotiness between them with words, that this would somehow be easier. And he’d done what she’d asked. Respected her confusion, gave her space, even moved on with someone new. Took himself out of her equation, basically. But it’s still been hard, and that’s on her. They haven’t talked, and it’s felt weird, and now he thinks she doesn’t like him.

He couldn’t even look at her when he said it. Just averted his eyes and waded out shyly, bravely, into the knotiness. _You never know, one day you might even like me._ Chin tucked into his neck, the dark fan of his eyelashes such a contrast with the ghostly paleness of his skin.

He broke her heart, a little. Because as annoying and pretentious and idiosyncratic as he often is, Jonah is so gentle in the ways that matter.

Amy, meanwhile, plays violent video games over yesterday’s stew, and steadfastly tries to avoid her feelings.

She really had thought they were casual, was the thing. Normal, platonic. Easy and unremarkable. That they were just friends who’d hit it off, because she was perpetually exhausted and he hadn’t become jaded by retail yet, so he was still shiny and fun, and she needed the respite from mundanity and boredom, and that was it, and it was enough. He was, yes, naive and useless, but also charming in said naivety and uselessness, so she gave in, let herself enjoy the shenanigans, and insisted it meant nothing.

It wasn’t until the tornado, when the howling winds swept through her little life, that she realized he was actually the warmest, steadiest thing she had in all of her chaos. It sounded like some kind of metaphor— except that he was real, and he held her to his chest as the world fell apart around them, and suddenly it wasn’t so casual, and they weren’t just friends anymore. She chose him, and he came through.

It was all utterly inconvenient. Still is. But now she’s had six months to let it soak in that this isn’t casual, and she can no longer avoid that feeling, the one she’d taken for granted before and which she rediscovered on their little adventure today. That he makes her lighter, happier, and he’s not like the other friends she’s made at work, because he _gets_ her, seems endlessly fascinated by and invested in her, and he bribes children with sugary drinks for her— and she wants to keep him around. Wants to know where he goes when he’s gone. Wants him on this couch with her so she can teach him this game and then kick his ass at multiplayer mode, lord it over him while he washes the dishes in penance. Always with a smile, though. Indulging her her trash talk, which is all light and no real heat, because she just loves to tease him, and he loves to be teased by her.

He was right. He _has_ grown on her. Like she used to be some bare and sandy dune where she thought nothing grew anymore, and now there’s something green taking root. Delicate, now, but vibrant and alive.

She does like him. She likes him in every way. And the timing is shitty, as usual, but. He deserves to know.

Amy pauses the game for a minute, pulls her phone out of her pocket. She and Jonah aren’t exactly casual texters— their text history is sparse and truncated and mostly about scheduling shifts— but tonight she texts him. _this game is the_ _besttttt, thx again!! :)_

He responds back almost instantaneously: _no problem! enjoy!_

  
.

  
She does bring her copy of the game to work the next morning, and he agrees to play it with her. She purposely assigns Kelly to the freezer section and the two of them to electronics for the afternoon, and they sneak in as much playing time as they can between customers.

Predictably, he is terrible at this. Keeps dying before getting any real damage in. But he’s a good sport about it, laughing at himself as his avatar continues to run into walls. She spares him none of her trash talking, but she also pauses the game to show him out of every conundrum. He gets better the more they play. They split a jumbo bag of chips, and have to hastily vacuum up the crumbs before Glenn notices.

“You were right, that game is fun,” Jonah says later in the break room, as he’s getting ready to leave.

“Right? And you got the hang of it eventually.” Amy smiles as she puts on her coat. “We can play again whenever. If you want.”

“Sure.” He shrugs easily, putting on his earmuffs.

Kelly, already wearing her coat after spending the day in the frozen food aisle, chooses now to appear. “Hey, Amy!” she says cheerfully. “Jonah, just give me a sec, let me go get my bag and then we can go.”

“You two going out on the town again tonight?” Amy asks, in what she clearly thinks is a friendly, winning tone.

“Yeah, we’re seeing _Black Panther._ Her first time, my third.”

“Third?” Amy arches an eyebrow.

“I saw it with different people both times,” he clarifies. “Plus, I mean, it’s totally worth it. You’ve seen it, right?”

“Emma has.”

Jonah’s jaw drops. “Seriously?!”

“I’m not that into comic book movies!”

“But this is so much _more_ than a comic book movie!” Jonah insists. “Do you want to come with us? I’m sure Kelly would be fine with it, you _have_ to see this movie, it’s a cultural phenomenon—”

“I don’t want to third-wheel your date, Jonah.” Amy’s smile is genuine, but a little tight. “Go enlighten her. I’ll see it another time.”

Jonah glances sideways at her in suspicion. “Are you sure you’ll actually see it, or will this be another unfortunate _Call Me By Your Name_ situation?”

“I told you, I got spoiled on the peach thing and it killed my buzz. I’ll watch _Black Panther.”_ A beat. “But if you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to chaperone me and watch it a fourth time.”

“We’ll go next Tuesday, I get discounted tickets on Tuesdays through my rewards program,” Jonah decides.

“Okay, next Tuesday.” Amy tries not to look too pleased. “Have fun.”

He beams, warm and bright. “Night!”

Amy zips up her coat and slings her bag over her shoulder, not even bothering to hide her own smile— but the moment she turns around she is confronted by Dina, standing in front of her with her arms crossed, expression grave. Amy’s heart nearly leaps out of her chest.

“God, Dina, don’t scare me like that.”

“I’m not allowed to tell anyone about your weird crush for fear of my baby’s life, so can I talk to _you_ about how pathetic it is that you’re grubbing Marvel movie dates with— Hazel, right now? If you’d let me, I could’ve gotten rid of Retail Barbie with voice memo three and you could’ve been banging already instead of watching some dumb movie.”

Amy rolls her eyes. “This is why I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“But I do know, and you’re killing me,” Dina says. “I’m a woman of action. Don’t think I didn’t see your goo goo eyes while you were playing that game all day. I took the cost of the chips out of your paycheck, by the way, so I’ve covered for you on that front already.”

“Gee, thanks,” Amy mutters.

“You’re welcome. You’re a mess.”

“See you tomorrow, Dina,” Amy says with a sigh, brushing past her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment and/or a kudo before you go! And, if you like, come say hi to me on Tumblr, I am @avengerlexa!


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